The Kobanê trial in Ankara will continue today, Wednesday, with Gültan Kışanak's defense.

The former mayor of Amed (tr. Diyarbakir) has been in prison since 2016 and has been charged with 108 other people in connection with the protests in Turkey during the Battle of Kobanê. Of the defendants, 18 politicians are still in prison.

Gültan Kışanak took part in the trial via video link from the Kandıra maximum security prison on Monday and Tuesday, when she started her defense. Women from all over Turkey traveled to Ankara to support her. So did the co-chairs of the DEM party, Tülay Hatimoğulları and Tuncer Bakırhan.

At the beginning of her defense, Gültan Kışanak explained that there were three main issues in the Kobanê trial: “One is the Kurdish question, the second is the freedom of women, because the women’s fight for freedom is on trial in this case. Third, this process aims to eliminate democratic politics.”

Who are you to judge me?

As to the charges against her, the Kurdish politician said: “This is a political trial. What we are accused of is our political actions and thoughts. I am a woman who has never hit anyone or incited anyone to commit a crime. Who are you to judge me? We have been held in prisons for more than seven years due to a political conspiracy, but what happened outside? The economy has collapsed, there is war and conflict, the country has no relations with its neighbours, the constitution has collapsed. The dispute that the Court of Cassation is currently conducting with the Constitutional Court over [jailed TIP MP] Can Atalay has reached the point of attempting to put an end to the country's constitutional legal system. Decisions about us are pending at the Constitutional Court, but due to political pressure the verdicts are not being issued. The constitutional order has collapsed. Do we still need the Constitutional Court or not? This brings us to the final point of the discussion, whether we need a constitution or not. There is no longer a democratic social order in Turkey.”

We women will not remain silent

Turkey is ruled by men, and capital is also under male control, said Gültan Kışanak, adding: “What do women do when they are exposed to lawlessness? They organize themselves, they form organizations, they raise their voices, they take to the streets and say: Stop the violence. If they are not given this right, it means that there is no democracy. We can be put in prison, but we will continue to speak out in the streets. I salute all women who refuse to be silenced by this regime. We will not remain silent either just because we are in prison. An empire of fear has been created, but we will overcome this fear, we will destroy it. You cannot take away our freedom of thought and expression. You cannot criminalize us. You can't judge us for not thinking like the government. We will not submit to this empire of fear. The only way to defeat it is to be courageous and resist this despotism.”

The Kurdish question can and must be resolved

Gültan Kışanak pointed out that she had already experienced persecution after the 1980 coup and resisted the torture of senior officer Esat Oktay Yıldıran in Amed Military Prison. “Anyone who wants to intimidate me with a prison cell today should know that Esat Oktay did not scare me,” said the politician. Like her co-defendants, Gültan Kışanak called for a political solution to the Kurdish question, saying: “There is nothing we cannot solve as long as we are sincere.”